This set of definitions has been
designed to help students learn critical reading and thinking skills.
Developed along with this list of definitions are practices that help students identify
thinking fallacies, smokescreens, and propaganda techniques. The practices are
available at the
Distance Reading Lab, a password-protected component of the HawCC
Reading Lab web site. User name and passwords are available through your
reading instructor or Reading Lab Coordinator. Once in the Distance
Reading Lab, use the links marked More Reading Lab Activities and
Practices, Advanced Critical Reading Skills and Practices, and Advanced
Practices in Detecting Errors
in Reasoning.

The definitions on this page
provide an overview of the numerous thinking fallacies
that students may encounter daily. The term fallacies comes from the Latin word for
deceit. It is easy to deceive ourselves into believing that we are
making a strong argument when we have unintentionally lost our way. Some of the fallacies are
purposely employed by writers and speakers for whom "winning" is
everything. Most, however, are used by intelligent people who are unaware that they are resorting to
fallacies. Closely related to thinking fallacies are smokescreens and
propaganda techniques that people deliberately use to deceive others. You
will find many examples of these in advertising and politics.

The definitions and practices have been adapted from the
following sources:

Rottenberg,
Annette T., The Structure of Argument. New
York: St. Martin's Press, 1994

Background

Fallacies are used to avoid the issue, to confuse the issue, or merely to
oversimplify the issue; regardless, readers and listeners must be aware
of these deceptions. Sexism
permeates society.Stereotyping is
common.Rationalizations are
accepted unthinkingly.False
authorities are commonly cited as authorities in the media.The public is bombarded with loaded words and appeals to conformity.Everyone must maintain a constant guard lest they be lured
into believing false promises, buying things sold on false premises, and being
propagandized into false beliefs.

Different authors
define fallacies in
different ways.The following list
is divided into two parts: those that are most commonly used and those
that are more difficult to detect. The list provides an
explanation of each fallacy and mentions some of the other names used to identify
the same fallacy.

I.
Common Thinking Fallacies, Smokescreens, and Propaganda Techniques

Bandwagon
Appeal

This
fallacy is commonly
used by politicians to influence people to vote for them."Ken Hughes - The People's Choice.
TV ads are also rife with images that illustrate the bandwagon appeal,
for example shots of many people wearing the same type of jeans, or shoes, or
using the same cleaning product. The implications here is that if you don't jump on the bandwagon, the
parade will pass you by.

Card
Stacking

This
propaganda technique does not provide all of the information necessary for the
reader to make an informed decision. It uses arguments that support your
position, but ignores or even denies the arguments against. Card stacking is often difficult to
detect because you must decide what is missing from the picture.

Changing the
Subject

This
fallacy includes the use of irrelevant information to support an argument and
is sometimes referred to as the red herring fallacy. Suchfacts
are distracting and unrelated, for
example "We need to spend more money on education.Just
because the Russians are increasing military spending doesn't mean we should.The future of the nation depends on the children of today."
Mystery writers often use red herrings to lead the reader away from
identifying the real culprit.

Circular Reasoning (Argument Ad Nauseam)*

Using
part of an argument as evidence to support it is called circular reasoning. "Mr. Green is a great teacher because he
is so wonderful at teaching." This fallacy "goes around in a
circle;" the reason given is the same as the conclusion.

Either-or

This is an example of black and white or
dichotomous thinking.This fallacy
simplifies a complex problem so that only two options are presented.They are stated in such a way as to make you believe that there are no
other options. For example: "Some beach balls are yellow.Some beach balls are red.Therefore,
if you have a beach ball it must be either yellow or red." Well, it might
be; however, nowhere is it written that beach balls can't be blue or purple or
multi-colored.

False Comparison or Analogy

This is an argument that contains a contextual error or a
neglected aspect.It occurs when we
assume that two things that are alike in one specific way are alike in other
ways."Skis and roller skates
are both strapped on your feet.Skis
help you travel over snow efficiently, so roller skates would help you travel
efficiently over snow."

False
Cause

The false
cause fallacy assumes that because event B follows event A, Event B was
caused by event A. Relationships are not cause and effect just because
they occur at the same time."Statistics
show that Hawaiians live longer than other Americans.If you want to live longer you should move to Hawaii."

This "doubtful cause" fallacy is also called post hoc, ergo
propter hoc ("after this, therefore because of this"). Another name is
the
improper data fallacy. A generalization that attributes something to a false
cause is based on faulty data."Janet
and John both scored 98 on the history test; therefore John is as intelligent
as Janet." (This does not take into account the fact that one of them
studied for two days and one for half an hour.)

Glittering
Generalities (Argument by Slogan)

This
is an important-sounding but unspecific claim. It cannot be proved true or false because it really says
little or nothing. An example of a glittering generality is the
promotion for a popular beverage as "The Real
Thing." Here are some others : "Simply the best,"
"the Right Stuff," "Nutrition That Works." The point is
that the phrase sounds good but says nothing definite.

Hasty
Generalization

Someone
who makes generalizations on the basis of insufficient evidence is making a hasty
generalization. "The first six people who voted all said they
had voted Democratic. It looks like a big victory for Democrats this
election." This
fallacy can also be called stereotyping, a generalization that results from
an oversimplification or a bias. For example, "Blonds are dumb" or "Chinese are clever."

Still another name for this fallacy might be the inadequate data
fallacy.
The user of this fallacy has some data pertinent to the problem but
not enough to form the basis of a sound conclusion.The media's rush to interpret early voting results out of Florida for
the 2000 Presidential election was clearly hasty.

Loaded Words

This is also called the
glad and bad words fallacy.It involves the use of emotive words to influence the reader.This technique is frequently used in advertisements to persuade us to buy
things.Bad words are used to make
us buy products to rid ourselves of things that we have been persuaded are
undesirable.Glad words are used to
make us buy products to obtain what we have been persuaded is desirable.Some ads use both techniques."Why suffer the embarrassment of morning

mouth?Use ZYX toothpaste every evening and wake up to a fresh,
exciting mouth."

Name
Calling and Personal
Attack (Ad hominem)

Name
calling uses derogatory implications or innuendos to turn people
against a rival. For example, in the political world, one group
may call another group's beliefs "un-American" when what all they
really mean is
that they disapprove of those ideas. In the business world, Burger King employs this technique to imply that its burgers are superior to
McDonalds.

The
personal attack fallacy narrows in on the character of the opponent
instead of addressing the issue at hand, and often occurs in political debate. "Our
Mayor's opinions about local crime are worthless. He can't even manage
to hold his own household together, having been married and divorced three
times already."

Plain
Folks

The
Plain Folks technique is commonly used in advertisements and is similar
to the Testimonial technique outlined below. Ordinary people are pictured in print ads or appear on television
endorsing
products.The advertiser uses
people who reminds of Grandma, the "conventional" family of
mother, father, son and daughter, and even adorable babies and pets to help
sell the product. This is also known as
the false authority fallacy.

Slippery Slope

The assumption that
one event can cause of an undesirable chain reaction of events. The
slippery slope fallacy is a case of if-then. For example,
"If you don't get to bed early, then you'll be too tired to do well on the GRE
tomorrow. If that happens, then you won't get accepted into a decent graduate
school, andyou'll end up a washed-out alcoholic living in a
trash-bin." There is also an old saying about a camel's nose that
is another example of slippery slope: "If you allow a camel to
poke his nose into the tent, soon the whole camel will follow."*

Straw
Man

Because it is easier
to demolish a man of straw than to beat a live opponent fairly, arguers are
sometimes tempted to pretend that they are responding to the views of their
opponents when they are only setting up a type of artificial opposition which
they can easily prove to be wrong. A common form of the straw man
fallacy is to attribute to others views that they do not actually
hold. This fallacy almost always avoids the real issue. An example would
be arguing against defense spending by claiming that peace is more desirable
than war. Since almost everyone believes the war is undesirable, this
argument avoids the more difficult question of how peace is secured.
This fallacy is closely related to the personal attack and name
calling fallacies explained above but appears to be a more sophisticated
effort to deceive the public. The user of the Straw Man strategy
must cleverly reinvent his opponent in order to change the public's initial
perception of that opponent.

Testimonial

This
is commonly used in advertisements.
It is similar to the Plain Folks technique explained above. However,
instead of ordinary people, famous people are pictured in print ads or appear on television
endorsing
products.The advertiser hopes that
those who admire this person will buy the products thinking that they will
be more like their idol if they use products he or she uses.

Testimonial is another form the false authority fallacy.

Transfer

This fallacy
appeals to people's respect or reverence of symbols, such as a politician
standing in front of an American flag. There is also a good deal of
transfer value in children, pets, or good-looking models.

II.
Fallacies
That Are More Difficult to Detect

Conventional Wisdom

This fallacy occurs when arguments are
based on clichés or on "facts" that "everybody knows."
"The pen is mightier than the sword, so if you are ever in a fight grab a
pen to defend yourself."

Opinion-Fact

This involves stating facts and
opinions in the
same argument in such away that the listener confuses the two."Betsy Ross made the first American flag.She must have been the finest seamstress in the thirteen colonies."

Rationalization

When we
rationalize, we give ourselves good reasons for doing things we want to do and
good reasons for avoiding things we wish to avoid, but these good reasons are
not really true."Mark sees a
shirt on sale in the store.He
does not need the shirt, but buys it anyway because 'it was so cheap I couldn't
afford not to buy it.' "

Self-contradiction

This occurs when there is an
inconsistency in
reasoning."Inebriated
drivers are more careful than sober drivers because they know that drunk drivers
are more likely to be involved in accidents."

Sexism

The most
common fallacy, and the one that is most difficult to be aware of, is the sexism
fallacy.English speaking people
have historically used masculine pronouns when referring to groups that can be
either male or female.We have been
socialized to accept the fallacious belief that the male is superior to
the female.The statement
"Doctors should spend-more time with their wives and children" assumes
that all doctors are male.

Shifty Word

As
an educated individual you must learn to recognize the semantic implications of polysemantic words and homonyms.Many words in the English language have multiple meanings and
you must be able to make the transition from one meaning to another.You must also be able to distinguish between words that sound alike but
are spelled differently and have different meanings.Many riddles rely on the shifty word fallacy. For example, "What
is black and white, yet read (red) all over?The newspaper." Those who use the shifty word fallacy are accused of
ambiguity and equivocation.

*For
a nearly exhaustive list of argument fallacies, check out this web site created
by Don Lindsay :
A List Of Fallacious Arguments.
These starred items were taken from this list.

This
list of definitions has been adapted and edited by Amritana Engle, Spring 2001.